No Food Limits

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Books by K J Foxhall

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Archive for the ‘Media’ Category

Before we get into the merriment of this next post, the horrific events of the last week in Paris need to be acknowledged. While the terrorist attacks of last week are still on people’s minds, I hope that Paris can soon begin to move on and rebuild. Until then thoughts are with the families of those who lost loved ones last Friday evening.

Over the last week a video did the rounds in the cat lover’s community on Facebook where it was suggested that cats hate cucumbers.

Here is the video:

So naturally I tried it on Noah and Nero. I then found out during the week that several other members also tried it out on their cats. Luckily my husband had been to visit grandma and she always gives us food, and contained in the oversized doggy bag this time was coincidently, a cucumber. My husband said I was more than welcome to take it, which I was going to do anyway, but it is always good to get the go-ahead, and after convincing my mother that since discovering my small passenger on board, and not being able to do a lot of things I could do before, I was not using this experiment as an excuse to alleviate boredom, nor was I going bananas, so she let me have a go.

The result = anti-climatic.

Of course I realised when testing out the theory of this video that my two bruisers don’t get scared by a piece of fruit, they get scared normally by my mother sneezing or dropping something, so like many other cat looking confused in pictures I have seen this week, here is one of my boys sniffing a cucumber and not scared in the slightest.

Apparently the trick is to place the cucumber behind them when they are distracted like eating, however I also tried this and it still made no difference. It was somewhat comforting that many of the cat owners on the Facebook forum also experienced the same bewilderment, but this answers the statement that not all cats are scared of cucumbers, just a few with very gifted owners who know how to play a prank on an unsuspecting moggy.

The video that started this is trailing Facebook (courtesy of several members of the Facebook Cats Protection League group, myself included), it is a compilation of the snippets which are also featured in a Metro online article also from this week.

A story that caused quite a stir this week in the legal world, along with everyone else in the UK it seems. It was about the young woman who couldn’t keep her mouth shut, but is this abnormal for a 17 year-old in today’s world – not really.

The obsession to document everything online is not wasted on the youth either as it seems that everyone is doing it. Personally, I don’t refer to Facebook as a social networking site but more of a place where I can vent, hence why I call it ‘Rant Forum’, however there are still media laws in place to help us watch what we say. Twitter may be a massive pool of posts but it will not hide you when you decide to say something still considered to be ‘over the line.’

Paris Brown I should imagine can now testify to this.

For those of you who don’t know who she is, or what I am on about, Paris Brown became the new media casualty several days ago during her 9 day employment as youth police and crime commissioner. Here is some background information on how this all began taken from the BBC website:

“A 16-year-old girl has been appointed youth police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Kent.

Paris Brown, from Sheerness, will work alongside Kent’s Independent PCC Ann Barnes representing young people across the county.

Paris was a student at the Isle of Sheppey Academy and is currently an apprentice at Swale Borough Council.

Ms Barnes said the youth PCC would receive £15,000 for the year, part-funded from her own £85,000 salary.

I know some of you are probably thinking just by reading the above that this was a recipe for disaster to begin with – well you are right! With only a few days into her employment it was discovered that young Paris made a few untoward comments on Twitter between the ages of 14 and 16 years old. These comments involved her admission of drug taking, her sex life, digs at homosexuals and several other comments.

To be more precise (and I use that term loosely when referring to the Daily Mail), here is an excerpt from the Daily Mail with more details about the posts:

In one Tweet she wrote: ‘I really wanna make a batch of hash brownies’

And she also said: ‘Everyone on Made in Chelsea looks like a f****** fag’

Appointed to change perceptions of young people

Keith Vaz MP says she must be removed from her £15,000 post immediately.”

I remember when I was at school (which wasn’t that long ago I would like to add), if you came out with a racist comment or something against a persons’ orientation, you would surely be beaten up, however now it seems like one can get away with it now….well unless you are Paris Brown of course.

Over the last few days we have witnessed Ann Barnes standing by Paris who was sobbing behind her at a press conference. I have yet to make my mind up whether she was sobbing because she was genuinely sorry, or because she got caught. We have also been told by Paris’ mother since these posts came to light that Paris has several friends who are homosexual and/or a different race.

Yesterday however we were given the news that Paris Brown had stepped down after only being in the post for 9 days.

My initial reaction was ‘good, actions have consequences, no person or organization deserves their reputation to be tainted by someone who cannot keep their comments to themselves’.

When I read the comments reacting to this news it did contain mixed views, and most were actually stating that Paris was a victim of media ridicule, Ann Barnes had not done the proper background research on Paris before hiring her, therefore a young girl’s future has been ruined.

This may be so but let us not forget that Paris Brown is almost a legal adult and should have really known better. Granted she did not know at 14, 15 or 16 that she would be placed in a post such as this, and at the same time it is easy for someone older and more experienced to say ‘you should have deleted the posts when you accepted the job’, but that is all part of growing up and I think many of us have learned the hard way.

Whether Paris Brown was the victim of public vilification, or whether Barnes who allegedly has put Paris into the media snake-pit, should have been more responsible for vetting candidate backgrounds, considerable embarrassment has been caused to Kent Police and the role of the PCC. Many are saying that Barnes should follow in Paris’ footsteps and hand in her resignation as well, but overall I think both can take away lessons from this.

Ms Barnes, vet your candidates better and perhaps imply to them that their social media accounts will most likely be watched or that a full background check is going to be done; AND

Paris – delete those posts, it’s not cool, it’s not sick it’s downright stupid. If you wish to go into a professional career, you need to act professional and you are not a child any more.

However as conciliation, because everyone is so obsessed about posting everything online, chances are it won’t be long before this story submerges into the social media oblivion and it was as if it never happened.

Like this:

If you read the article it says “But figures show Kent Police now has 284 fewer fast response officers in four fewer cars – and £20 million less is being forked out on their salaries.” Which means that somehow the police manage to fit 71 officers in one car!!! Must be a world record surely….

A few other good points here:

Only two officers are on duty in some areas in Kent overnight. This was carried over from a protocol used in Thanet in the 1990s. Erm, even I know that crime in Medway in particular has risen in the last 20 years to warrant more than two officers a night.

Less officers can mean more vulnerabilities. Some may think that they are wasting the taxpayers money – but who else is going to police the streets if we get rid of the police? They are a necessity and that will never change.

The truth is, police officers put their lives on the line everyday, and in some areas this is the literal every time they go on shift, why shouldn’t they receive a decent pension and a decent pay. After all would you walk your streets late a night on your own?